Total harvest for the season as of Saturday is 294 sturgeon from Lake Winnebago and 261 from the Upriver Lakes for a total of 555 fish. Of those, 38 weighed more than 100 pounds.

In 2012 spearers harvested 566 fish, with 36 of them weighing more than 100 pounds, or about 6.3 percent

One of the reasons the sturgeon management program has been so successful is the implementation of the sturgeon guard program since 1977, said Ryan Koenigs, fisheries biologist with the Department of Natural Resources.

“The guard program helps to protect fish during the spring spawning migration and has all but eliminated illegal poaching during this time period,” Koenigs said.